The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac at The Beat Shindig in San Francisco

15 minutes before this show I was lying on the ground behind the Cassady’s booth trying not to lose consciousness. . . .

An hour into it I was running around the stage playing Gregory Corso on a football team. The build from wounded wobbly to careening comedy is completely crazy.

Everything had been going more-than-well. I’d done two killer hour-long shows the day before [see them here or below], then gone to the kick-off of the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary all evening, and despite the non-stop madness, was holding up quite well — until I helped move some boxes of books just before showtime sparking one of my dizzy/pass-out spells. I’ve seen doctors about it, and they tell me I have to get horizontal as soon as it happens or I’ll lose consciousness. It was one of those.

This past month I’ve been editing & posting all the filmed shows on file from the last two years since The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac came out — and by flukey happenstance / karma / fate this was the final one revisited.

It’s by far the weirdest craziest strangest Beatest of them all. I look like hell, and feel older than Ferlinghetti! . . . but then gather strength & steam as it progresses — in fact, beginning surprisingly a minute in when the “opening announcement” gets not one but two big laughs. 😀

I appreciate a good drama — be it the stage the page or the screen — and love “the arc.” But this is the only time I’ve ever done a show where it happens without being written into the script — from barely conscious … to sustained needle-pinning laughter. It’s real-life reverse aging — where the character gets more youthful with each passing moment. But it’s all natural / real / improvised and unrehearsed.

To me, this is my most Dead-like show. It’s so weird, and so easy if you’re not inclined and don’t know there’s a pay-off coming to turn it off. But this crazy thing happens . . . it just sorta builds and gets into its own groove and wild blossoms bloom . . . I can’t explain it, like you can’t really explain a Dead show. But this is the closest I ever came to executing one.

I’ve just watched the Abbie clip and it’s amazing! I was staying at Abbie and Johanna’s home in the Thousand Islands and remember when they returned from that conference and told the stories from it. The speaker totally captured the energy Abbie felt from the event.

He kept talking about some guru-rimpoche type there and “the sex and sake set” which is what he imagined was keeping the holy man going through it all. He brought me back a white tee shirt with red and black ink, a silhouette of Kerouac and some words – “On the Road?” perhaps? I loved that tee and wore it into tatters over many years.

I just wanted to tell you that your stories really bring me right there in the room with you. I could listen to you for hours. I love how excitable you are … it gets my heart racing to know what’s around the corner.
I also loved the part of journal reflection and how it works out your thoughts … just free writing no rules. It helps you discover things about yourself.

Woza! Thanks so much, Spirit! I’m glad the stories work. <3 And that the notebook notes struck a chord. I've been using them as "a hard-currency memory bank" since teenagehood and don't go anywhere without one. 🙂